Headscratchers / Rocky III

• Apollo Creed famously tells Rocky that in order to win he'll need to have the "Eye of the Tiger". But hang on: in Rocky II, Rocky was complacent and didn't want a rematch, whereas Apollo was burning with resentment at the idea that he didn't really beat Rocky in Rocky. Similarly here, it's Apollo who's mad at Clubber. Rocky doesn't care too much, whereas again his opponent is hungry, desperate to beat him and win his title. Again in Rocky IV, OK Rocky's fighting for revenge, but Drago is a staunch Communist and feels that the honour of his entire country rests on him defeating Rocky, who actually does embody the Western decadence of the Soviet imagination. The only time Rocky was actually hungrier than his opponent? The first film, where he lost. So why does Apollo think Rocky needs to be hungry in order to win, when that's not borne out by his record?
  • As the song "The Eye of the Tiger" went, "You change your passion for glory." Basically, as Rocky rode his wave to success, he grew complacent and no longer had to put any effort to win, which wasn't helped by Mickey's, however well intentioned, choosing of Rocky's opponents. He didn't take his training for his first fight with Lang seriously and mainly used it as a publicity stunt. Basically, if Rocky was to beat Lang, he had to recapture the determination that he had in his earlier fights. In the first film, he was determined to go the distance and last all 15 rounds. In the second film, he got back into the ring, because his commercial gigs didn't pan out and he was determined to win despite his injuries. As Duke put it, when Rocky is determined, he's implacable. "I saw you beat that man like I never saw no man get beat before, and the man kept coming after you." Drago later echoes Rocky’s ability to take punishment when he’s determined. “He’s not a human. He’s like a piece of iron.”
• When Rocky was punching Clubber during a clinch, was that even legal? Don't get me wrong it's still awesome, but isn't something like that against the rules in professional boxing?
  • In a clinch, you have to assume that you are free to hit the opponent and they are free to hit you unless/until the ref tells you to break. Some refs will give an order to break very quickly, but technically the rules are to encourage the fighters to work and continue fighting as long as their hands and arms aren't being constrained by the opponent. In a real match the clinch you mean (I'm assuming you're talking about the final round of the second match) might well prompt a referee to call a break and separate the fighters because one of Rocky's arms is pinned between Clubber's arm and body, but since the ref hasn't called for them to stop punching and break, both Rocky and Clubber are free to pound away.
• Why did Paulie still get arrested after destroying the pinball machine I mean he is Rocky's brother-in-law after all wouldn't he just like get a slap on the wrist?
  • He DID just get a slap on the wrist, which was why Rocky was able to bail him out without breaking a sweat, and why we never heard any more about Paulie's legal problems after that.
  • And yes, you'll get arrested if you destroy a bar's pinball machine, even if the game features your brother-in-law. Not sure how you think the law works.
• Why in hell didn't they rush Mickey to a hospital when he collapsed after Clubber shoved him? Were they just planning to leave him there in the locker room until after the fight?
  • Also: despite Mickey's insistence that the fight still go on, there's no way in hell that the league would have allowed it under the circumstances.
  • It’s mentioned that he wouldn’t go to the hospital. It’s also possible that paramedics hadn’t been able to arrive in time.
    • It's not really up to him at that point.
• Why didn't Apollo take on Clubber himself? By any objective measure, before Adrian's heart-to-heart with Rocky and the training montage Apollo was in better shape than Rocky was, and as he himself says "You [Rocky] fight great, but I'm a great fighter." After the Rocky-Lang fight Apollo still thinks he can beat Rocky so in some way he still has the Eye of the Tiger.
  • It is possible Apollo may have had similar thoughts himself, after he sat stewing it for a while, leading into his illfated match with Drago in the next movie. Perhaps the answer is that, somewhere in the back of his mind, Apollo knew he was too past his prime and that Clubber would simply have bulldozed his way through him. Apollo could fight a friendly match with Rocky and win, but in a real boxing match he knew he just didn't have Rocky's ability to absorb damage and keep moving.
  • With Drago, it also seemed to be patriotism that convinced him to challenge him, which isn’t a factor here, since Clubber Lang is also American.